


Mycroft Holmes Is The British Government (reboot) (A Study in Cerulean, Chapter 4)

by angwe



Series: A Study in Cerulean [4]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-29
Updated: 2012-01-29
Packaged: 2017-10-30 07:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angwe/pseuds/angwe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mycroft is back online and is sufficiently annoyed as to begin investigatory procedures. Legwork, however, is required, and he calls on DI Lestrade. MPs are difficult, as always, and he and Sherlock share some suspicions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mycroft Holmes Is The British Government (reboot) (A Study in Cerulean, Chapter 4)

_Op code E5 4A  
System check  
Op NULL  
Op 02 91  
Online  
Back trace 55 AC  
Online  
Op NULL  
Op NULL_  
Initiate boot sequence with parameter set D4 64.  
 _Sequence D4 initiated, subset 64, booting synchronized nodes._  
Where did that message come from?  
 _Locked comm link lines with block reports indicate zone EE 02._  
Oh, not the SLEDZ again. Open communication with local jurisdiction.  
“Node 6A, online.”  
“Give me DI Lestrade.”  
“Lestrade here, Node 54.”  
“Dispense with the formalities, please.”  
“Oh. What’s wrong, Mycroft?”  
“I’m sending a data-trace blueprint for a message I received recently. See if you can’t back-trace it physically. Things move too often in your sector for me to rely on the system.”  
“Thank god.”  
“What?”  
“There’s a distinct lack of legwork around here recently, and I’ve had recent upgrades.”  
“You too?”  
“Sherlock getting into the game a bit more than you think wise?”  
“Rather more an issue of what I see John looking at all the time.”  
“He has to keep up on the trade.”  
 _Notice level 53 AE: His Lordship Trundlewall._  
Devote two processing cycles to it, determine if this is an honest conversation or more Parliamentary squabbling.  
 _Processors partitioned._  
“Yes, well, sometimes I think he’s looking for a technological solution to problems that don’t require it.”  
“Aren’t we all?”  
“Yes, I suppose that does seem to be the way of things. Let me know what you find.”  
“You’ll know it when I find it anyway.”  
“I suppose I will.”  
 _Connection closed._  
 _Processing loops determine potential conflict in conversation with Trundlewall._  
Synchronize main processors into interaction.  
 _Synchronized._  
“...and the status of some of the borderland EZs is troubling.”  
“Wait, you can’t be seriously considering this an issue of national security.”  
“And why not?”  
“Because I’ve tracked market activity, and black and grey market activity, in the borderlands and found no significant difference with the central zones. And yet, you sit there claiming that their proximity to non-EZs creates a dangerous quasi-legal permissive perimeter that is going to get us blown to bits?”  
“I was thinking more along the economic route.”  
“What part of me tracking legal, illegal, and semi-legal transactions made you think I wouldn’t notice any problems in the economic sector?”  
“Not all of them operate under known credits.”  
“My good Lord Trundlewall, I think, perhaps, you have forgotten the extent to which I am capable of knowing the things that go on everywhere. I make no claims to total omniscience, but every shadow currency that has ever been invented of late has had to be recorded somewhere, and I know all of them. I track all of them. I know, for instance, of a multi-national corporate entity based in the non-governmental, floating cyberhaven off of the Spanish Canary Islands that keeps half of its books in quasi-yuan, the favored currency of the Hong Kong grey market for bio-cyber interface research.”  
“I have contacts that tell me things are going to get problematic around the north-east corner first.”  
“And I have contacts who know yours are being fed false information in order to propagate a bill that will catch a small rider allowing more freedoms for half-British entities to claim assistance from their majesties.”  
“We shall see, Mycroft.”  
“I don’t need to see. I already know.”

_Connection closed._  
Initiate fractal memory check. Devote five processing cycle queues.  
 _Initiated._  
Five blips in the past twenty years, and then suddenly eight in the last four. They never shut down enough nodes for anyone to notice but me. This would never have happened under father’s watch.  
 _Message priority 43 7A, carries permission code 11 E9.  
_ “My dearest brother, how are you getting along?”  
Decode remaining fragment with private crypto key, one processor only, vapor memory.  
“I think our two paths may be aligning in this, my latest case. And I suspect you already knew that. However, I think I may have something that requires your own intimate experiences in order to get a full handle on. The private files I kept from that time are full of technical details and my own musings, but I have new suspicions. Please allocate some time for me soon. Your brother, SH.”  
I’m not fond of a family therapy session, brother dear, but my own suspicions put me in a place to consider your request. Initiate encoding sequence, use known public key for envelope, next private key in sequence for true encryption.  
Envelope, “Little brother, I am initiating some on-the-ground research, of which you may be interested. Your friend is involved.” Message, “Will have operative nodes in sector 08 B5 prepared. Meet me whenever you like. Nothing requiring more than two to the tenth processor queues in immediate future. MH.”  
 _Encrypted. Delivered.  
_ Initiate request sequence 74.  
 _Confirmed.  
_ Good. Now, what is going on with MI6? Run backtrace on last five months of crypto requests.  
 _Data collection error 65. Node A4 B5 reports missing file fragment. Checksums improperly validated.  
_ Pity. More legwork. Someone thinks they can screen me.


End file.
